Why is it called "canning" when you are actually "jarring"?

Last weekend, my mother-in-law sent up a bunch of "goodies" There were Tamales, Molé, Tortillas, a sack full of tomatoes, and peppers from her garden, and some tomatillos. I didn't exactly know what to do with the tomatoes since I am the only one that really likes to eat them anyway, they were going bad faster than I could eat them. So I got an itch to make salsa...not just make the dang salsa, but to also can the salsa. There are firsts for everything and this my friends, was my first time ever canning. It was a real-tiring process trying to find the dang mason jars, Walmart, I managed to get to 3 different ones and to all my luck they were sold out. When we were in Caldwell on Saturday, I stopped at Albertsons and to my surprise they LOTS of them. I purchased 2/12 packs thinking I would be making a lot. So this morning when I woke up, I started first thing. Boiled the tomatoes, drained them, boiled the tomatillos, cut the onion and chopped the cilantro, and viola! I was ready to blend the heck out of all this fresh produce. After attempting the first batch, Manuel woke up, (thank heavens, b/c he is a salt lover and I am not, and I need to add salt to the mixture, my little shake just wasn't enough) any way he sampled almost all of the batches. after getting all the jars filled, (to my surprise, with everything I had, it only filled 7 jars, I was shocked from the looks of all the stuff we had, I thought we would have more) I put them in the pot to seal the deal. I let them boil in the water for a long time just because I wasn't keeping track of time and so every time I would check on them I would "plan" to give them just 20 more minutes, but then I never managed to look at the clock at this point in time. So I am pretty sure they were in the pot for well over an hour or so. (obviously, I don't exactly follow rules. It said not to disturbed the jars with in 12-24 hours of canning...but I had to get a picture and they had cooled by now, I don't (hopefully not) think I hurt anything)
Oh well, I don't think it hurt any thing. When you can, the lids are not suppose to pop back up when you push in the center of them. when I pulled the jars out only 2 popped back at me. But throughout the day, they have sealed and not a single one of the seven pop back and I think my results are pretty good for being a first timer. Now, I haven't tried the salsa since they have been sealed, it says to wait 12-24 hours before messing with them, possibly tomorrow I will have some. Hopefully it tastes good... I am pretty proud of my-self. Now if I could can peaches. I am sure I could but with what I hear, it gets pretty messy and I just don't know if I am ready to conquer that on my own, doing the salsa was messy enough :)

One last note: Sorry if this blog seems to over use the (,) comma, I just finished an assignment for my Business Communication class that was dealing with commas, so now that I have been doing that for the last 45 minutes, I think the comma usage is instilled in my head for the time being :)

One more item of business, I love that I can still spell correctly at 2 AM...Spell Checker is just trying to correctly spell words its not recognizing. SWEET

Chelsea and the Horrible day turned good by a nice note, Blow Pops and a Dr. Pepper

I am sure there have been worse days than this one, but as of right now, it's was awful. Work started at 7 in the AM...so just to give you an idea of what time I woke up (5:45 AM) anyway.. Work with the kids was fine, minus the incident with not wanting to go to school, yelling, fighting, being late to school..what a morning. So I took Margaret and family to the airport, on my way back I was definitely not all with it and I came over the bridge by BSU and apparently I was going 45. Couldn't tell, Acura's drive so smooth...not so much, I should have been paying better attention. So as soon as I come down, I hear it...a siren...lights in the mirror and him motioning for me to turn down the street instead of pulling over. Great. He was very polite...a little to polite in speaking but a hard core officer. I couldn't find my license but I could tell him the number, (Am I the only one who has the drivers license # memorized, b/c when I said that, he was like, "hmm...really?") He was probably thinking "this girl must be a trouble-maker" haha. not really. So as he is writing my information down (such as eye color, hair color, weight,) I find the license. As soon as I hand it too him , he looks at me and says "well, here it says you are 5'3", you said you were 5''4". I respond, "I said that?, I don't remember you asking my height". "oh, your right, I was thinking of asking that question" You know, I wonder how much police officers can get away with saying they asked and accusing the "violator" of lying, resulting in a bigger fine. arrgg. Thanks to my great Listening skills and a little defensive attitude I have, I set the man right :). Anyway, well because I was going 45 in a 30 zone, I was fined $75....if I had been 1 mile over (46), my fine would have been $140...holy crap. He warned I was near the boiling point. I really never speed, I am usually a good driver, very attentive, but my mind definitely wasn't with me at the moment. So this resulted in some tears because I couldn't believe I let my self do that, and I was a bit "teary-eyed" at the drive thru at the bank. No, not at a pull-up to the window and see the teller face-to-face, one with a TV, a camera and speaker. I thought I was playing it cool when she first came on, I just said hello, fine thanks", not really making eye contact... So when she returned my receipt, she came back on and said "Chelsea, I am sending your receipt along with a little treat, I hope you have a better day." Oh I was a bit more teary, just b/c I think I was more embarrassed than anything, but she was a big sweetheart. There are those in life who just make ya so mad, because of their rudeness, but then there are the sweet ones, which you don't find a lot of anymore, a lot of bitter people out there, but when you find one, they sure are sweet. She also wrote a little note on the receipt and I think I will post it on the fridge for a while. Because really, I knew life would be okay after I received this.

FLASHBACK: So when I was coming to Boise a few years back with Stephanie and Hilary, I was speeding 90 in a 75 so Steph could get to a restroom, I see lights, (out of no-where again, cops sure are sneaky, usually I am cop detector.) anyway, that ticket, oh my lands was like $175,( I was seriously in the boiling then) and here I am pouting about a $75 one, well let me explain, that was like 5 years ago, meaning I think my record is, well was clean, now I have this on me :(

I think what brought a bigger smile to my face was that I was special enough to get BLOW POPS, not just a dum-dum or a Safe-T-pop, I got 3 BLOW POPS (Apple, Watermelon, Strawberry), not a bad selection if I do say so my self. So if you my friend are a teller at US BANK, that wrote a sweet note to "Cheer-up" a customer, I sure do appreciate it. Keep it up, because that technique definitely works on a girl like me. Anyway, then my dear husband took me for Dr. Pepper..it sure was delicious with that hamburger I had as well (bad I know)

K & C Taylor...tied the knot (FINALLY)

My "bestest" recently got married in La Marada, California. It was a great weekend, lots of laughs and girl time. I flew out Friday morning and was in California by 1030 and away we went to cleaning, decorating, cleaning, and the list goes on. Crystal and Kody's wedding was pretty, fun and stressful all at the same time. All I can say, is that I am glad it's over. We had lots to do and little time. Crystal and her family had been there the whole week and had done alot of things but we had to do the final touches and the things that must be done last. It was fun I loved hanging out with her family, they are second to mine and I just feel right at home with them :) Since Manuel was unable to go, I stayed at the hotel with Crystal, Sandy, Christine Friday night then Sandy, Christine and Holly stayed with me Saturday night. I was never alone, which is a good thing. I am glad the Taylor's are one now, it's about dang time. Since the wedding took place in California, we had an open house in Burley tonight. IT was almost just as stressful :) haha! We had the open house at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It turned out to be a wonderful night. Grandpa kept saying how beautiful his yard looked. IT did look pretty dang cute back there with Orange, creams and browns. BEAUTIFUL! And of course we had to decorate the car, so I took the liberty of sending the kids to the store to get the stuff so we could decorate, it was lots of fun, except my brilliant idea of whip cream didn't do the deed. It melted...Stupid me, where did I ever get that idea from? Enjoy the pictures...

Califonia Wedding and a working windshield system..

So tomorrow bright and early (or should I say DARK and Early) I am heading to California. Manuel will drop me off at the airport at 5:30 am ish. One of my very very close friends is getting married and decided California would be the best place for her nuptials. And after 6 years of these two dating(I might be wrong on the years of dating, but it's been 3 years of being engaged), I don't care where it happens, just so it happens :). It will be exciting although I am sad because Manuel isn't going. He was originally going to have to work, but since he took it upon himself to volunteer for a shift switch, they are giving me Saturday and Sunday off, so he can be ready for Monday's new shift. Although I really him to go, I will miss him like crazy, but will be glad that when I get home Sunday night, *HOPEFULLY* my windshield wiper system will be fixed. I finally picked the part up yesterday and I am so happy for Manuel to fix it. If you recall, I would have to say my windshield wipers are one the best features in the car...I am dork but I love having a squeaky clean windshield, and due to the fact that the motor part was broke in the little accident on the freeway involving a piece of metal, my windshield is sure squeaky and not clean...(squeaky I say, b/c I sometimes forget that there is no fluid in there and I push the windshield wipers button to work and I just get squeaks from the rubber rubbing against the dry, bug infested, dirty windshield.

Rotten little buggers...

So as I was getting ready for work Wednesday morning, Manuel called and asked me if I realized that we had been T.P'd...hahah seriously...I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would have to deal with Toilet papered yards until my yonder years when my children's friends pull pranks. Boy was I wrong, although the TP was very minimal it was an easy clean up but just reflecting back on my years...I went TP'ing a couple times, I remember one time we were in desperate need to TP my neighbors that mom took the crowd in to town to buy toilet paper, but it was Burley and no stores stay open really late, except for the gas stations, I remember thinking...dang this toilet paper is expensive. Us girls came up with enough money to buy a pack while some went to the bathroom and took a roll or two, I am sure it went un-noticed but I must say that was probably the best TP'ing job I have ever witnessed. Good thing they didn't know who did it and we weren't called to come clean it up unlike some one I know (hehhmmm..Initials C.N.T.). Luckily our little prankster or should I say PRANKSTERS got off easy. Maybe our little TP'ing friend heard about our new paint purchase and wanted to pay one last tribute to Good Ol' Blue...haha

We will part with the BLUE and go with the NEW

Can I just tell you that September 1st (today) is/was the best day of September and a day I have been awaiting to happen for quite some time. What is this suspense you ask??? MY HOUSE WILL NO LONGER BE BLUE. You know a year in a half ago, when I first drove by my then soon to be house, I cried... I cried in the car coming down the street before I even saw the house, because I could see the chimney and it was blue, very blue. I cried because it reminded me of a porta-potty and anyone who knows me knows that I am deathly terrified of the dang things. The color has definitely worn on me and I don't mind it anymore, but still terrified of porta-potties. Anyway, today we bought the paint, it will be probably another month before we get it painted, due to the fact that we have stuff going on every weekend in September, but none-the-less, it will be changed shortly. So you can all anticipate the change and we will definitely be posting pictures.

SO GOOD BYE BLUE HOUSE

AND HELLO TO THE NEW PAINT :)

Now, hopefully the colors are right, like we wanted them and I won’t be disappointed. I must say, I wish that we didn't have to go thru this b/c it was like heck deciding which color to use. Now I know that we have an Association here in this neighborhood, and I know that we are suppose to ask permission to paint...but I have no idea how to even contact the association I have googled and phone booked them and nothing has popped up, at least I tried. I am sure it won't be a problem, because trust me; we definitely do stand out in the neighborhood like a sore thumb. I don't really like the idea of asking "permission" from someone else to paint my house when we are the owners here; I don’t need permission for something like that. Funny story as to why I don't think it will be that big of deal to not get "Permission." Last year before we moved in, I was here cleaning the house and Vanessa was my company at the moment and I knew Gordo was coming to pick her up and the doorbell rang...we assumed it was Gordo but looked out window and it was different man. I answered it and he asked me if he could paint my house, he gave his card and all...I am still convinced that it was the Association that sent him because supposedly he lives in the neighborhood. Mmm... a little odd but funny. I was embarrassed, I knew this house was a bit "unique" if you will, but I was already having a hard time dealing with the color let alone having someone else point out that my house needed painted...

Patience Patience Patience